Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Returners

“...wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn.”

Rāji‘ūn is not properly a verb (although it does function as a verb), but an active participle, which is also a noun. It is not a future tense of a verb, for something we will do only after our passing from this life, but a substantive, which also qualifies our present nature. We are not simply returning to God after death; we are returners by nature. Every moment of our existence, we are returning; because we are created to be so, and all our faculties, all our strengths and virtues, are attuned for this returning which is our life, apart from which there is neither light nor goodness in us; for we are His, and to Him we are returners.